The Sunday Read: ‘How Cheerleading Became So Acrobatic, Dangerous and Popular’

Varsity Spirit, a Memphis-based company, has transformed from a small cheer camp provider into a sprawling cheerleading empire. Founded by Jeff Webb, the company now dominates nearly every aspect of the sport in the United States.

Varsity Spirit was founded by Jeff Webb, who built the company from a small cheer camp provider into a sprawling cheerleading empire over the course of four decades.

Jeff Webb started his journey with cheerleading as a general manager of the National Cheerleaders Association (NCA) at the age of 23, after having worked with the organization’s founder, Lawrence Herkimer, the "father of modern cheerleading." Later, dissatisfied with NCA's traditional approach, Webb left and founded the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA) in 1974.

Webb started the Universal Cheerleaders Association in 1974 after breaking off from the National Cheerleaders Association founded by Lawrence Herkimer, the "father of modern cheerleading."

Webb took 20 of Herkimer’s top instructors to start UCA with ambitions to innovate the cheerleading industry. Despite Herkimer having once seen Webb as a potential successor and expressing great faith in him, Webb's departure was a point of contention, with Carolyn Herkimer, Lawrence’s daughter, feeling betrayed.

Webb grew Varsity Spirit through innovations like televising cheer competitions on ESPN, creating the "All-Star" category of competitive cheerleading, and expanding into cheer apparel and event production.

In a significant move in 1984, Webb made a deal with ESPN to televise cheer championships, which increased cheerleading’s visibility across 34 million American homes. Webb then introduced the "All Star Cheer" category, establishing cheerleading as a competitive main event with year-round opportunities, rather than a sideline activity.

Varsity Spirit expanded further with the creation of a uniform division, extended its reach through camps and competitions, and went public in 1992 with remarkable annual revenue. Dennis Worley, a longtime Varsity employee, contributed to developing the All Star market, ensuring divisions were available so all children could participate.

In the 1990s, Varsity saw its revenues quintupling, and the company's influence became so great that Webb's presence was often described as imperial, highlighted by the use of a private jet aptly named "Cheer Force One."

Varsity Spirit's market dominance increased through acquisitions of rival companies and the creation of governing bodies like the United States All Star Federation (USASF) that were financially tied to Varsity.

Varsity’s dominance is also evidenced by its aggressive expansion strategy, which included the acquisition of competitors. Notably, after struggling to compete due to Varsity's exclusiv ...

Varsity’s business practices have been compared to historical monopolies due to its extensive market control and influence over the competitive cheer industry.

Varsity engaged in anti-competitive tactics like scheduling "attack events" to undermine competitors, offering generous loyalty rebates to gym owners, and using its control over event venues and governing bodies to limit rivals' access to the market.

In 2003, after Jamie Parrish and coaches formed a group to standardize cheerleading rules, Varsity quickly established the United States All Star Federation (USASF) with a $1.8 million interest-free line of credit and required gym memberships to compete at its events. Some USASF staff were Varsity employees who volunteered their time. Varsity also created USA Cheer and became a corporate partner with the National Federation of State High School Associations, influencing high school cheer rules.

Varsity has faced accusations of monopolistic behavior, such as building a juggernaut that inflated prices and edged out competitors. For instance, it staged attack events in the same cities on the same dates as competitors’ events, limiting rival event producers’ venue options through exclusive contracts, and offering rebates to gyms to enforce loyalty. Herbert found Varsity’s control and critics called it a monopoly with hardball tactics.

Varsity's market power allowed it to significantly raise prices for families participating in competitive cheerleading, with some estimates of over $10,000 per child annually.

Parents have reported annual costs upward of $10,000 per child for competitive cheer, including competition fees, uniforms, plane tickets, hotels, and meals. After acquiring companies like Jam Brands, Varsity increased event fees by more than 40%. Varsity’s acquisitions continued, but maintained the brands to obscure the money it drew from parents. The company generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue with high profit margins and has not been meaningfully challenged by lawsuits and controversies even though these have alleged that Varsity eliminated some competitions to direct teams towards more expensive Varsity events.

The company's business practices squeezed independent event producers and gym owners, pushing many to sell to Varsity or rely on its lucrative rebate programs.

Varsity’s control of the market pressured smaller event producers, especially with the creation of The Summit, a Varsity-run event that generated significant revenue. Independent event producers felt thwarted by Varsity’s influence on the USASF and struggled against Varsity’s market power. Gym owners, reliant on rebates for loyalty, feared losing them, which discouraged competition. However, internal Varsity memos and employee comments revealed concern over the company's ...

Cheerleading poses significant safety and wellbeing risks, from catastrophic injuries to incidents of abuse, with the sport’s governing bodies under scrutiny for their responses to these issues.

Cheerleading has an alarmingly high rate of catastrophic and concussion-related injuries, yet Varsity and the governing bodies it founded were often dismissive of safety concerns.

Cheerleaders like Nikki Jennings suffered multiple concussions and other serious injuries, sometimes facing pressure from coaches to keep competing despite their injuries.

Nikki Jennings retired from cheerleading due to acute health issues stemming from multiple concussions and a serious head injury sustained in a basket toss. Her retirement followed a chronic hip injury and enduring headaches named "stingers." Jennings' experiences underscore the high rate of catastrophic injuries in the sport and highlight the enormous pressure cheerleaders often face to perform regardless of their injuries.

According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research, cheerleading accounted for more catastrophic injuries to female athletes than any other high school and college sports combined over the past 40 years. Emergency visits for cheerleaders soared nearly 500% from 1980 to 2001. Moreover, flyers, the girls tossed into the air, have an extremely high injury rate, with Dr. Robert Cantu commenting that being a flyer is the riskiest position in all of women's sport.

Varsity and the USASF were accused of ignoring or mishandling reports of sexual abuse by coaches, resulting in a major scandal with parallels to the USA Gymnastics case.

Varsity and the U.S. All Star Federation (USASF) have been caught up in a sexual abuse scandal with disturbing similarities to the USA Gymnastics case. Herbert reveals that governing bodies like the USASF, founded by Varsity, have been accused of failing to comprehensively track and ban problematic coaches, such as Scott Foster who was sometimes visibly intoxicated. Despite Foster's suspension and subsequent investigation for sexually abusing a girl, photos indicate that violations were not always taken seriously.

Susan Crumpton, a former Varsity spokeswoman, commented that the USASF took appropriate actions based on the information available at the time, which did not include allegations of sexual misconduct. However, a USA Today investigative series found that nearly 180 individuals connected to cheerleading and sexual misconduct, were not barred by the USASF and USA Cheer. The reporting process for abuse was complex, and cheerleaders required assistance to navigate it, pointing to a broader issue with abuse in the sport.

Following the scandal involving Jerry Harris from "Che ...